After committing a murder in Rome, the famous 17th
century Italian painter Caravaggio went to Malta to avoid the
death penalty. While there, the Great Master of the Order of the
Knights of Malta commissioned him to do a painting for the
chapel of the Co-Cathedral of St. John in Valletta. Caravaggio
chose as his theme the martyrdom of John the Baptist. He
produced TheBeheading of St. John, his
largest work, the only one he ever signed. No doubt the scene
touched him personally.

Herod was married to Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife.
Because John the Baptist preached against this sin, he incurred
the hatred of Herod’s wife. The day her daughter Salome
delighted Herod with her seductive dance, Herodias had her make
Herod promise to kill John the Baptist. Within the severe
architecture of a 16th century prison, Caravaggio
vividly depicts the grisly moment when Herod kept his promise.

Caravaggio’s work, considered his greatest masterpiece,
immortalizes the misguided fidelity of a ruler to his gruesome
promise. With the stroke of the soldier’s sword, John dies and
so does freedom. Freedom is based on the truth of the human
person as created by God and protected by his law.

When a
ruler can decide against God’s law, true freedom is sentenced to
death.

Recently, a politician made a promise. Politicians usually
do. If this politician fulfills his promise, not only will many
of our freedoms as Americans be taken from us, but the innocent
and vulnerable will spill their blood.

On April 18, 2007, in Gonzales v. Carhart, The Supreme Court
upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban. The very next day
prominent Democratic members of Congress reintroduced the
Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). The bill is misleadingly packaged
as a freedom bill. It is not! It is a clear act of unreasoned
bias to end abruptly and brutally the debate on the pressing and
fundamental moral issue of the right to life.

For thirty-five years, Americans have been wrestling with The
Supreme Court’s decision legalizing abortion in Roe v. Wade.
Most Americans now favor some kind of a ban on abortion. Most
who allow abortion would do so only in very rare cases. In fact,
in January, 2008, the Guttmacher Institute published its 14th
census of abortion providers in the country. Its statistics
showed that the abortion rate continues to decline. Abortions
have reached their lowest level since 1974. There is truly a
deep sensitivity to life in the soul of America.

The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) would mortally wound this
sensitivity. In effect, it would dismantle the freedom of choice
to do all that is necessary to respect and protect human life at
its most vulnerable stage. FOCA goes far beyond guaranteeing the
right to an abortion throughout the nine months of pregnancy. It
arrogantly prohibits any law or policy interfering with that
right. While advocates trumpet this law as the triumph of the
freedom of choice, they hide the dark reality that the law would
actually inhibit choice.

Laws protecting the rights of nurses, doctors and hospitals with
moral objections to abortion would no longer stand. Health and
safety regulations for abortion clinics would also vanish. Gone
the freedom of health care professionals to be faithful to the
Hippocratic Oath “to prescribe regimens for the good of
…patients…and never do harm to anyone, to please no one [by
prescribing] a deadly drug nor [by giving] advice which may
cause his death.” Gone the freedom of conscience so essential
for a civil society!

If a minority of avid abortionists succeed to impose this law
because of the ignorance or apathy of the majority, the law
would force taxpayers to fund abortions. Gone the freedom of
taxation with representation!

In its 1992 Casey decision, The Supreme Court ruled as
constitutional state laws requiring that women and young girls
who seek an abortion receive information on the development of
the child in the womb as well as alternatives to abortion. The
ruling also determined that a period of waiting, usually 24 or
48 hours before making a decision about an abortion is not an
undue burden. The Freedom of Choice Act would nullify these laws
immediately. Gone the freedom of women and young girls to have
all the information they need to make their own choices!

In about half of the States, there are parental notification or
consent laws in effect for minors seeking an abortion. The
Supreme Court has ruled that these laws are permitted under
Roe v. Wade. With the stroke of a pen, these laws would be
abolished. Gone the freedom of parents to care for and protect
their children and grandchildren!

Advocates of FOCA redefine a woman’s “health” so as to expressly
permit post-viability abortions. Thus, a child who survives an
abortion can be left to die for the health of the mother. No
politically correct word can mask this reality for what it is.
This is infanticide. Gone the freedom for a baby, once born, to
live!

Science does not dispute that the child in the womb already has
all the characteristics that he or she will develop after birth.
Notwithstanding, abortionists obstinately refuse the right of
the child within the womb to live as a fundamental human right.
They are not happy that Americans have not swallowed their
distorted propaganda that denies the dignity of the human person
from the first moment of conception.

Pro-abortion advocates close their eyes to the fact that
abortion even hurts women as it undermines the very fabric of
our society. Their zeal for the Freedom of Choice Act sounds the
alarm for decent Americans to wake up! The more the right to
life is denied, the more we lose our freedoms. The “pro-choice”
movement is not pro-choice. It stands against the freedom to
choose what is right according to the truth of the human person.

In 2002, as an Illinois legislator, the present democratic
candidate voted against the Induced Infant Liability Act. This
law was meant to protect a baby that survived a late-term
abortion. When the same legislation came up in the Judiciary
Committee on which he served, he held to his opposition. First,
he voted “present.” Next, he voted “no.”

Along with 108 members of Congress, the present democratic
candidate for President continues his strong support for the
Freedom of Choice Act. In a speech before the Planned Parenthood
Action Fund last year, he made the promise that the first
thing he would do as President would be to sign the Freedom
of Choice Act. What a choice for a new President!

At the time when Herod murdered John the Baptist because of his
promise, Rome practiced the principle "one man, one vote."
Whoever the emperor in Rome placed in authority over a subject
people, ruled. Today we live in a democracy. We choose our
leaders who make our laws. Every vote counts. Today, either we
choose to respect and protect life, especially the life of the
child in the womb of the mother or we sanction the loss of our
most basic freedoms. At this point, we are still free to choose!